Are you sure it’s the coffee beans?

Sometimes a cup of coffee doesn’t taste right. Coffee drinkers usually blame it on the beans. Sometimes it is the beans but not always. Bad beans are not the only thing that affects the taste of coffee. Some of the other things are: 

• Water
  98% of a cup of coffee is water. Coffee brewed with chlorine or other hard chemicals will be flat and have a bitter, harsh taste. Make sure your water comes from either a high quality filter or quality bottled water. 
• Water Filter
  Your water filter will change the taste of your coffee. High quality filters take out chlorine, other chemicals, odors and algae. Low quality filters leave some chemicals and other material in the water. Dirty filters add a moldy taste to coffee. Check to make sure your filter is taking out everything that might make your coffee taste bad. 
• Temperature
  Great coffee is brewed at 200 degrees Fahrenheit . Check the water coming from your automatic drip brewer with a meat thermometer. If you use a French press or manual drip maker, bring the water to a boil and then pour it after about 30 seconds. Coffee brewed below 195 degrees tastes thin and underdeveloped. 
• Grinder
  Good coffee is brewed from evenly ground coffee beans. Unevenly ground beans will over and under extract, giving your coffee sour and acidic flavors. Using a good quality conical burr grinder will improve the flavor of your coffee.
• Coffee Oil
  Coffee beans are filled with oil. When coffee is ground and brewed the oils adhere to the machine.  If you don’t clean your brewer, grinder and coffee equipment the oils will turn rancid and give your coffee a sour or fishy taste. 
• Coffee Cup
  We serve coffee in our tasting room in ceramic cups. We found that our commercial dishwasher left a detergent film on the cups that affected the coffee taste. We now run our cups twice, once with detergent and once without. If you coffee tastes like detergent, it may be the cup. 
• Storing
  Coffee beans oxidize quickly when exposed to air. In addition, they also pick up flavors in the air e.g. onions, garlic, fuel oil etc. Ground coffee oxidizes faster than whole bean coffee, so coffee beans shouldn’t be ground until just before they are used. Whole bean and ground coffee should be stored in as close to an oxygen free environment as possible. Freezing coffee helps slow down oxidation. Oxidized coffee tastes flat with little aroma and no subtle flavors. 

If you check all of the above and your coffee still tastes bad, then you need to take a look at your beans. How long since the beans were actually on a tree? If it isn’t the current crop year, you are wasting your money. How were the beans processed? If they sat on a truck after picking for more than a few hours they may have a fermented taste. Were the beans sorted and graded?

Good coffee trees have both good and bad beans. Did the processor sort out the bad beans? How were the beans stored? If they sat in a container on a tropical pier they may taste moldy. If they were stored in burlap bags they may taste like burlap. How long since they were roasted? Fresh roasted coffee tastes fresh. Old coffee tastes old. Aging is good for wine, bad for coffee.

How Hot is Your Coffeemaker?

The Optimal Temperature for Brewing a Great Cup of Coffee.

My grandmother, every morning, used to open a can of Hills Brothers coffee, put the ground coffee in a percolator and place the percolator on top of a wood stove. After the coffee had finished “perking” she pulled it off the stove and served it. My grandfather loved it; it was hot, black and gave him a jolt to start his day. She then put the percolator back on the stove and let it boil some more, just in case he needed another jolt.

It wasn’t great coffee but who knew the difference. If you are reading this, you know the difference. You know the four elements of a great cup of coffee, beans, water, brewing temperature and dwell time. But do you know whether or not your coffee maker is brewing at the right temperature?

According to the Specialty Coffee Association of America and the National Coffee Association, the optimal temperature for brewing a great cup of coffee is 197.6 - 204.8F. If the temperature of the water is too low under extraction occurs. Since acids in the beans are the first substances to dissolve, the coffee will taste weak and have a sour flavor.

If the water temperature is too high, then over extraction occurs and the coffee tastes bitter. Hula Daddy Kona Coffee brewed at the right temperature tastes sweet and flavorful, doesn’t burn your throat and doesn’t give you “coffee mouth.”

The most recent edition of Consumer Reports rates a number of popular coffee makers. One of the criteria is the ability of the coffeemaker to brew coffee at 200F.Consumer Reports rated the following coffeemarkers as excellent in brewing coffee at 200F:

• Cusinart Brew Central
• Michael Graves 40304
• Oster Counterforms 4281
• Zojirushi Fresh Brew
• Krups Coffee Machine
• Kitchen Aid Pro Line KPCM050MNP
• Mr. Coffee JWX27
• Hamilton Beach Day or Go 45237

However, one problem with the Consumer Reports test is that all of these coffeemakers were brand new. We have tested a number of used coffeemakers and found that after a few months that the brewing temperature drops drastically. One popular used coffeemaker we tested was brewing coffee at 156F. If you use a drip coffee maker, take a meat thermometer and place it under the water discharge head on your coffeemaker. It should read close to 200F. If you can’t get to the head, check the temperature of the coffee coming out of the filter. It should be about 160F. If your temperature is below or above the recommended temperature you need a new coffeemaker.

The only coffeemakers certified by the Specialty Coffee Association to brew coffee at 200F are the Technivorms. These coffeemakers are imported from the Netherlands and are sold by most specialty coffee supply houses. If you can’t find one nearby check out SweetMarias.com.  Be aware that the Technivorm coffeemakers cost about $250.

Choosing a Kona Coffee

We received an email wanting to know why we didn’t sell our Kona coffee for $10 a pound. The author said that he had seen 100% Kona Coffee for $10 a pound in his grocery store. We had to tell him that just because the label says Kona on it doesn’t mean that the coffee will taste good. All Kona coffees are not alike. Saying that all Kona coffees are the same is like saying all wine from Napa is the same. Napa red wines sell from the winery from $4 a bottle to $900 a bottle.  There are bad, average, good, and extraordinary wines in Napa. The same holds true for Kona coffee.

Not all Kona Coffee comes from the same coffee trees. The original trees brought to Kona in 1828 were from Brazil. Since that time many different types of coffee trees have been brought to Kona. While most Kona coffee comes from the Guatemalan Typica brought to Kona in the 1890’s, there are many different hybrids of Guatemalan Typica in Kona which have distinctly different characteristics.

Coffee beans, like grapes, take on the “goût de terroir,” or taste of the land. Coffee taste is affected by the elevation, soil, orientation to the sun, drainage, pruning, watering and fertilizing. Farms next door to each other often produce coffees which are dramatically different in quality and flavor.

Finally, even the greatest beans can be ruined by poor processing. Coffee beans have to be pulped, fermented, dried, hulled, graded, sorted and stored perfectly to create an outstanding cup of coffee. We recently had some coffee processed where our beans were left out on a loading dock for three days. We had to sell them to a distributor who put his label on them. He probably sold them to a grocery store that is offering them for $10 a pound.

Kona, like Napa, has many farmers who care about their product. Unfortunately, we also have farmers and distributors who are only out to make a fast buck. We know who they are, but you don’t. If you want great Kona Coffee you should buy from a farmer you can trust, someone who has the knowledge and patience to answer questions, who displays passion for the beverage and is willing to put the time, effort and money into creating a great cup of coffee.

1. Buy from the actual grower
   Coffee typically passes through three or four different hands before getting to the consumer. Each buyer moves and stores the coffee. If they don’t do it right, the beans lose flavor. If you buy direct, you reduce the chance of poor shipping and storage.Most Kona Coffee distributors buy coffee from smaller farms and combine the coffees. Some have roadside stands where they buy coffee from anyone who pulls up. If the seller didn’t grow the coffee, he doesn’t know what chemicals were used on the coffee, how well it was tended, and how good the cup will be. The only person who can honestly vouch for the purity and quality of the coffee is the person who grew it.
2. Buy fresh
   Ask when the coffee beans were grown. Most coffee is brewed from beans that were grown years before. There is no reason to pay premium prices for coffee beans that are one or two years old. You don’t drink wine made from old grapes and you shouldn’t drink coffee made from old coffee beans. 
3. Buy from someone who is passionate
   Growing coffee can be like growing carrots or it can be like growing wine grapes. Great wines come from vineyards where the workers are passionate about the wine. Coffee reflects the passion of the grower. Farmers who care about coffee are excited and interested. Farmers who are out to make a buck don’t want to waste the time. Talk to the grower - expect the coffee to reflect their passion.

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